Update, 3:30 p.m.: This report has been updated with additional information.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The more than one billion Roman Catholics worldwide soon should have a new pontiff as the cardinals -- including Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York -- will begin voting in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican for the next pope on Tuesday afternoon.

Cardinal Dolan said Friday that he was "eager" for the conclave to start and also acknowledged that the Roman Catholic Church in America has "a wheelbarrow of challenges," but said it was in better shape in the United States than in other parts of the world.

The eighth General Congregation of the College of Cardinals voted that the conclave would begin on Tuesday following a "pro eligendo Romano Pontifice" mass celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica in the morning, the Vatican announced on Friday.

The 115 cardinals who are eligible to vote will choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who became the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to resign on Feb. 28. The pope emeritus stunned the world when he declared on Feb. 11 --two days before Ash Wednesday -- that he would retire. The cardinals have been meeting in General Congregations since Monday to discuss issues in the church and qualities they would like to see in the new pope.

If the voting proceeds at a speedy pace, Cardinal Dolan may be granted a wish that he expressed on Thursday of having a new pope and "a mass inaugurating his pontificate" on March 19, the feast day of the church's protector, St. Joseph.

Cardinal Dolan said on his Papal Update Friday on the Catholic Channel of Sirius radio that he was "eager" for the General Congregations to end and move on to the conclave.

"I'm sensing a hope that we may be able to wrap up the meetings by tomorrow, on Saturday," Cardinal Dolan said. "I'm as eager as you are, I miss New York, I'm running out of socks."

Noting that it was a Friday during Lent, Cardinal Dolan said that "sometimes the meetings can be a bit penitential, but it's good ... there's a great penance in listening because it's a humble act."

He called the cardinals "the true confessors of the faith" and said the problems in the United States paled in comparison to those spoken about by princes of the church from Vietnam, China and Nigeria.

"As many as the problems that we have in the United States -- and Lord knows we've got a wheelbarrow of challenges -- when you look at some of the difficulties that the church is experiencing in other parts of the world not only do I pray hard for them, I pray in gratitude for what we've got," Dolan said.

As for the announcement that Cardinal Dolan will give the commencement speech at Notre Dame University, the archbishop said, "I'm honored and flattered ... I'm grateful to Notre Dame for the invitation."

The Vatican's obsession with secrecy and security apparently is backfiring even though all of the cardinals have taken a solemn oath to not discuss what is said in the General Congregations. In one of its efforts to curb leaks of information, the Vatican put a stop earlier in the week to news conferences given by the American cardinals. The popular media opportunities were hosted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, a group headed by Cardinal Dolan. However, leaks to the over 5,000 members of the media who have descended upon Rome have continued unabated and Italian reporters even obtained minutes from the General Congregation meetings.

"Reports on security measures are beginning to dominate the news," said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, blogging from Rome as director of media relations for the USCCB.

"Jamming devices will be installed in the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic eavesdropping. Staff who serve meals at the Casa Santa Marta, where the cardinals will stay during the Conclave, will be sworn to secrecy.

"The Italian newspapers have several stories that predict winners in the papal contest. Given the Vatican adage that he who goes into the Conclave a pope comes out a cardinal, one wonders if the saying offers a measure of relief to some oft-mentioned candidates."

The jamming reportedly not only will prevent electronic eavesdropping on the secret proceedings, but also will also stop cardinals from communicating via telephones or computers with the outside world. Church law regulating the conclave forbids cardinals from communicating, "whether by writing, by telephone or by any other means" during a papal election.

All of the staff who will assist the cardinals during the conclave -- from priests standing by ready to hear confessions to the sisters serving meals in the Santa Marta -- will take an oath of secrecy and if they breach it they will risk excommunication, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office.

Cars equipped with special jamming devices will follow the vans that ferry cardinals from their residence to the Sistine Chapel, according to La Repubblica. Benedict's pontificate was marred by the Vatileaks scandal that saw the pope's personal butler convicted of stealing confidential documents and leaking them to the press. The pope later pardoned his butler. After Benedict announced his resignation, the Italian weekly Panorama claimed the Vatican had embarked on a large-scale surveillance and wiretapping operation as part of the Vatican police investigation into the leaks.

The Vatican denied that a large amount of data on the personal habits of cardinals and other officials had been amassed but admitted to wiretapping some of its internal phone lines during the investigation.

The cardinals will vote by secret ballot, processing one by one up to Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgment, saying a prayer and dropping the twice-folded ballot in a large chalice, according to the USCCB. Every day until a candidate receives two-thirds of the vote, four rounds of balloting --two in the morning and two in the afternoon-- will be taken. The result of each ballot will be counted aloud and recorded by three cardinals.

If no one receives the necessary two-thirds of the vote, the ballots will be burned in a stove near the chapel with a mixture of chemicals to produce black smoke. The ballots of the final round will be burned with chemicals producing white smoke to signal to the world the election of a new pope.

When a cardinal receives the necessary two-thirds vote, the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, will ask him if he accepts his election. If he accepts, he chooses a papal name and is dressed in papal vestments. The senior cardinal deacon, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, will announce from the balcony of St. Peter's "Habemus Papam" which in English is "We have a pope" before the new pope processes out and imparts his blessing on the city of Rome and the entire world.